President Barack Obama nominated former Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter to become his fourth secretary of defense on Friday at a ceremony that was supposed to include his third — but didn’t.

White House officials had said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would be in attendance when Obama appeared with Carter, but a defense official told POLITICO that Hagel had opted not to go to avoid distracting “from the proper focus of the day.”

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Obama praised Carter’s long service in the defense establishment and called him the right choice to take over the massive Defense Department as American troops fight terrorists in Syria and Iraq and wind up the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“With a record of service that has spanned more than 30 years, as public servant, adviser and a scholar, Ash is widely regarded as one of our nation’s foremost national security leaders,” Obama said. Carter’s experience means that when he arrives at the Pentagon, “He’s going to hit the ground running.”

Carter, meanwhile, pledged to give Obama his most “candid military advice.”

At the end of the ceremony, he gave National Security Adviser Susan Rice a big hug before leaving the room. Tensions between Rice and Hagel were seen as part of the reason that Hagel ended up leaving his post early.

Obama did not allude to Hagel’s absence but he did quote from Hagel’s speech hailing Carter when he left the Pentagon last year. When the ceremony was complete, Hagel issued a written statement of support for Carter. The two men were said to have locked horns during their tenure together at the Pentagon, but Hagel praised Carter on Friday and called for a quick Senate confirmation.

“Ash is a patriot and a leader,” Hagel said. “I strongly support his nomination.”

The Pentagon emphasized when Carter left as Hagel’s deputy that the two men got along and personal friction had not caused Carter’s resignation. And Hagel stressed to reporters Thursday that his decision to resign was reached “mutually” with Obama, challenging a storyline pushed by the White House that Hagel was fired.

Hagel’s unusual decision not to attend the ceremony for Carter after the White House said he’d be there may only inflame the strains between it and the Pentagon following a year in which the president’s national security team has feuded behind the scenes over decision-making and strategy. The Pentagon’s top job has become one of the least appealing in Washington following Hagel’s ugly ouster.

Three other candidates withdrew from consideration before the White House reached for Carter. Meanwhile, Hagel’s camp sought to describe his departure as a voluntary resignation — but administration officials stressed it was a relief for cause. Hagel “was just not up to the job” of doing what was needed in the final two years of Obama’s term, one official told POLITICO Magazine.

But if Hagel was pushed rather than having jumped on his own, he did not put up much of a fight. In fact, when it became clear he could not continue in the job, he opted to announce his resignation as early as possible, before the administration was ready with a replacement.

Defense officials have made clear the secretary had many of his own frustrations with the White House, including lack of political support for the Pentagon’s priorities and endemic indecisiveness by the National Security Council. On at least two occasions, Hagel spelled out his objections to Obama’s strategies in writing. Earlier, he had drafted a memo calling for more attention to the Russian problem and outlining the shortcomings of the administration’s Syria strategy, POLITICO has confirmed.

Many in the Washington defense establishment hope Carter’s arrival will mean work can start in earnest on averting the return of automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions next year.

“2015 will be a seminal year for DoD’s leadership,” said retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, head of the National Defense Industrial Association. “Sequestration looms over the FY2016 budget request, our military is engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, a revanchist Russia is seeking to change the map in Eastern Europe, and North Korea, China, and Iran continue to present enduring challenges. And those are just the external challenges.”

“Internally,” Punaro said, “the department must come to grips with the unsustainable growth in the cost of personnel and a massive infrastructure, both of which are straining the department’s ability to meet its operational commitments while also eroding end strength and investment.”

Carter’s experience includes serving as deputy defense secretary and time in academia, including stints at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford universities.

A nuclear physicist who has also studied medieval history – and a Motown fan, Obama said — Carter is considered an expert in weapons programs, budgets and the operations of the sprawling Defense Department.

Carter’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will change to Republican control when the new Congress is seated in January. But his prospects for confirmation appear good.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is set to take over as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, though it was unclear how quickly he would be able to realign committee staff and schedule a confirmation hearing.

McCain and other defense-backers in the Senate have praised Carter as a good fit for the job, but skeptics wonder if any defense secretary can succeed under what’s been called a dysfunctional national security process within the Obama administration.

Carter spent more than two years as the Pentagon’s No. 2 leader, first under Leon Panetta and then Hagel. Before that, Carter was the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer. He also served in the department during the Clinton administration.

Carter hoped to become defense secretary when Panetta retired, but Obama asked him to stay as the deputy to help with the transition to the next secretary, who wound up being Obama’s Senate friend Hagel.

In public and for the record, Pentagon and White House officials have sought to describe Hagel’s departure as the result of a mutual decision reached by him and the president. When speaking with no attribution, however, some White House officials have eagerly twisted the knife. “This is why you don’t send a sergeant to do a secretary’s job,” one person told Fox News.

Critics respond that Obama appears only to want a rubber stamp for policies formed within the top echelons of the White House, especially by Rice.

“That whole ‘team of rivals’ thing is looking funnier and funnier,” wrote National Review editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg. Rosa Brooks, a former senior defense official, wrote that although Hagel had been a “doormat,” he was the wrong kind of doormat — the White House only wants doormats of its own.

A former Republican senator from Nebraska, Hagel was confirmed by the Senate, 58-41, on Feb. 26, 2013, after a very rocky confirmation hearing. He has agreed to stay at the helm of the Pentagon until his successor is confirmed.